Benítez demands Liverpool improvement

His side may have come from behind to open their UEFA Champions League Group D campaign with three points at Olympique de Marseille but Liverpool FC manager Rafael Benítez believes there is still "room for improvement" after a victory he described as "lucky". His Marseille counterpart Erik Gerets, meanwhile, said the result was "infuriating" after two Steven Gerrard goals – the first a spectacular 25-metre effort – condemned the French team to a home defeat.

Erik Gerets, Marseille coach
I'm extremely disappointed by the result and a little bit upset. We lost despite a good second-half reaction to going behind. Considering the chances we created, to lose the way we did is infuriating. We proved we are equal to them. And we feel like we were close to achieving something. But in this competition, the smallest mistakes can have serious consequences. We failed to convert one of our three clear chances at the very end of the game and that's something you can't afford in this competition. We'll have to win one of our three away games to make up for the points lost tonight.

Rafael Benítez, Liverpool manager
When you play only six games it is important you win the first. We have got three points from a very difficult game and that puts us in a good position in the group. PSV and Atlético will have to fight hard to take points here. Tonight, it was a fantastic goal from Gerrard, a handful of clear chances and I'm very satisfied with my defence. We had clear chances but so did they. Pepe Reina was really good at the end and the positive thing for me is that straight after the game Steven said on television that we can play much better. We played well but there is room for improvement. Marseille were a good team who played well, particularly in attack. We had some tired players and made changes to keep things fresh but clearly we were a bit lucky at the end. The fact that we've come from 1-0 down to win again shows mentally we were very good and we can recover from difficult situations.